This new expansion, Alien vs Predator: Hot Landing Zone, brings with it twelve unicast figures, which can be added to existing forces or used as part of the advanced rules' custom forces.

5 Alien Spitters

5 Prisoners

A Synthetic

A Predator Tracker

Each of these brings new rules to the table, providing more in the way of tactical challenges and foes to overcome.

The expansion also brings with it a series of new rules options to bring into your games:

The Transport and Harass mechanic is introduced, in the form of a Dropship’s pilots taking part in the struggle for survival. The Human faction uses the Dropship to rapidly relocate their forces, while the Alien and Predator Factions try to make it too Hot a Landing Zone and cancel the Airlift
operations.

AvP:HLZ presents additional rules, where you get to play a Free for All scenario of up to six players. Additional gaming boxes will be needed for this purpose, and use of add-on packs and Advanced Game Rules is highly recommended.
- Prodos Games Press Release

The most exciting addition though maybe the inclusion of jungle tiles, taking your games out into the sweltering heat of alien rain forest.

Jungle locations have kind of been an iconic part of Predator since its first appearance, so it's nice to see that represented on the tabletop, as well as providing you with new environmental challenges to overcome.

Prodos are also offering a number of incentives for the pre-order, including 20% off on orders of their Dropship and their Predator Hellhounds. They are also including a squad of three cloaked Predators, made of semi-transparent plastic, for free with each pre-order. These are also to be available as a separate product, but only while Hot Landing Zone is on Pre-Order.

The models for this range have always been top notch, capturing the look and feel of the franchise perfectly. It is good to see the game continuing to grow and expand, delving deeper into some of sci-fi's all-time greatest monsters.

The expansion is set for release on January 21st, 2019, so that will be the time to grab your ridiculously oversized gun and head out for a bug hunt. Remember, if it bleeds, we can kill it.

AVP- like a lot of early Kickstarters, ran late and ran out of money. Prodos had the money to produce a ‘first wave’ and decided to produce it along with some non-Kickstarted AVP stuff.

Prodos announced that they didn’t have money for shipping several waves, and backers were given the option of either waiting for everything they ordered to be made (with no timeline). Some backers took them up on this and ordered one of their new expansions, but many other opted to not give Prodos any more money (those backers got nothing).

AVP has continued to support AVP with a combination of new releases and things from the Kickstarter (I need to confirm that the ‘buy something and we’ll send you your stuff’ deal still applies). The most controversial among these releases was the release of the game’s 2nd edition.

In theory, once all of the KS items are produced, they’ll mail them out to the backers who opted not to buy anything else from them, although that has yet to be seen (and from a customer service standpoint, those people look like a lost cause).

Because the company’s reputation was suffering, they started Archon studios and ran the LOAD Kickstarter with hidden identities (massive red flag). The gambit paid off for them, and now Archon can run a Kickstarter like any other reputable company (there are always some detractors talking about AVP in the comments, but they don’t seem to be hurting the funding numbers, and the projects continue to deliver).

Why are BoW promoting stuff from a company that stiffed backers of their Kickstarter for this, and only this weekend people are still asking when Prodos are going to fulfill original Kickstarter pledges

I really wish I had backed that one for $1, because it is really difficult to figure out the whole story.

Some backers have told me that all backers could have their stuff if they had just paid for shipping, while others tell me that Prodos just burned their backers with no shame. Or they did some kind of partial delivery and cancelled the rest or something.

They do look nice, but no way in hell I’ll be supporting Prodoss again. Not particularly happy to see BoW still promoting this garbage company either…….it’s not like people haven’t told them about all the nonsense they have pulled over the years!

will never purchase from prodos ever again I was one of the people that got stuffed on the kickstarter but to add insult to it all when I got my game after 2 years they released 2nd edition I asked them for a copy of the new rules am still waiting have never played this and feel very ripped off and for BOW advertise there products and as people have said white wash over the kickstarter I feel is wrong

I mean, when BP or Exxon have an announcement, does that seem like the time for to cover an oil spill from years back?

Please correct me if there’s actually any movement on the AVP Kickstarter front, but my understanding is that the story has been dead for years- even if we hear about it in the comments every time Prodos and/or Archon do anything at all.

They’ve raked in millions with other Kikckstarters since then (under the Archon brand of course) and have been doing quite a bit of R&D and production work for other projects. So they’re doing just fine, they’re just refusing to help out original KS backers. Most people’s complaints go either completely unheard or they get the ultimatum of ‘buy more stuff so we can cover the extra shipping costs or get banned’. Heck they managed to get the KS page locked off for a copyright infringement, cut off a large portion of the backers communication lines right there. Not everybody is on social media, miniature / boardgaming sites etc., there’s no telling just how many people really got screwed.

Geez, shipping costs have gone up. After 5-ish years of this madness and what sounds like 2-4 shipments due to miscasts and mispacks for every pledge something like inflation indeed actually comes into play. >_<

And that is before we come to the actual issues with the game:
– Zero quality control, whether you get a workable model or sample of pure perfection is utterly random. Same goes for whether or not you actually get what you ordered, both Kickstarter or regular order wise. I somehow got most of my stuff after years of having trying to communicate (and even offering to pay for extra shipping, but no only if you buy some new……could smell the tax dodging scheme a mile away on that one), but it took a whopping six shipments in between miscasts and complete mispacks. During which time I communication with four different people, three of which where gone when the next guy or gal would get in touch after a few months of silence. I was starting to suspect they were eating their own personnel. 😉

– The game is already in it's next edition, Kickstarter backers are stuck having to deal with the messy first edition (assuming they even got that).

– KS, 2nd edition and even promo models from the KS are all different scales. Nothing to horrible to deal with when it comes to the aliens and predators, but extremely noticeable on the humans.

– There are still outstanding items for the original KS.

And the sad thing is it is all such a damned shame. When stuff gets checked for quality you actually get very nice, true to source material models (rules are meh, but plenty of other rules sets out there). Instead we keep getting lied to while Prodos keeps advertising new materials all over the place and even buys it way unto a cool place like this site.

Actually, I think the horrible story is how Prodos were able to pull themselves out of the terrible position that they were in.

Obviously, AVP ran out of money a long time ago and production of backers stuff is being funded by other sales (sometimes the other AVP releases). Once they had screwed up, they had a lot of options, but they took the shadiest approach that I think I’ve ever seen.

I mean, they literally hid their identity in order to run the LOAD Kickstarter (probably the most Red Flag heavy Kickstarter to ever successfully deliver).

But the action absolutely paid off for them- and now Archon can run a Kickstarter like any other reputable company (though there are always a bunch of detractors warning everyone away, those concerns have proven completely false so far- and have basically justified Archon’s approach with LOAD).

I seriously think that there’s something wrong because that tactic worked and got them back on their feet. I mean, it might have been the best tactic to pull out of this kind of situation (and apparently it allows them to slowly deliver stuff to the backers they screwed over with AVP- albeit with a strange “buy something and we’ll ship your stuff” deal).

If they hadn’t pulled that crap, the company would probably be in a significantly worse position, and less AVP stuff would have been delivered. As it stands, it is hard to say that they did the wrong thing from a financial standpoint, and I honestly don’t know that they’ve done such wrong by the backers (the alternative to the partial delivery is no delivery).

But they achieved all of this through out right lies and obfuscation. And I think that if they hadn’t done all of that immoral crap, the backers of AVP would have even less of their stuff, and the company would have disappeared.

Oh- am I to understand that you are one of the backers who bought “something extra” to cover shipping?

It is seriously difficult to get the whole story of what happened with AVP (the most talkative sources I’ve found were on the Prodos forums, and were definitely pro-Prodos. I’d like to know if you can tell me any more details about how it went down.

– Seriously- SIX shipments? The most I’ve had from a Kickstarter that screwed up my order was four (from CMON- they fixed it, so we’re cool now). How the crap did they screw it up five times?

– I don’t actually understand how ordering something can help them with taxes. Is it a VAT thing? Is it that much different than asking for shipping money?

– How many outstanding items are there from the original Kickstarter? Have they made any of them since there was last movement on the KS front? And do we have any idea what the hold up is?

– Is it true that if you didn’t buy an extra something, you never got your order? Does that offer still stand for people who didn’t take it way back when? Like, would they send you the 2nd edition of the game?

Thanks for taking the time- it has been really difficult to figure out what exactly happened (largely because the KS page was taken down for copyright infringement).

I forget the specific moment / year, sadly enough the old AvP thread on the old forums seems to have gone the way of the dodo. That discussion went into great detail and the exact timeline. But to summarize Prodos eventually claimed that the reason so many people had outstanding Kickstarter orders was due to the increased shipping costs they couldn’t cover themselves.

On the one hand I could kind of understand that. Literal years had passed since the Kickstarter and shipping costs never, ever becomes cheaper over time. At the same time though, this was after years of virtual silence, blatant lies and a Kickstarter page that was closed due to a ‘copyright infringement claim’ that effectively allowed Prodos to cut off a fair segment of negative feedback (never mind the number of people who simply weren’t active on any other platform being left behind without any warning). Prodos also promised for over a year the page would be back, nothing ever came of that of course.

What’s more several people, including myself, had been trying to constructively help Prodos in their effort and communication. In fact I at one time proposed seeing if some people would be willing paying extra shipping to help cover their stuff / in the proces make it easier for Prodos to send stuff to others. In the end though all we got was ‘the offer’ where buying something else from the shop + shipping would move you to the front of the shipping cue get the V1 of the game. Something that in and of itself I still find very weird, especially given how adamant they were about not wanting to charge extra shipping by itself. I suspect some fiscal trickery going on there.

In my case it eventually took six shipments due to Prodos’ usual poor quality and packing checking. My ‘core pledge box’ was missing a bunch of stuff, while two other shipments simply had entirely incorrect stuff in them, another one had horrible miscast minis etc. All the while Kickstarter backers were herded into a separate Facebook group, with mentioning the Kickstarter leading to bans on the regular AvP page. Odd mix of extreme fanboys and dozens of disgruntled backer sin there, gets messy at times. So with every new AvP release, including a new version of the core game now, we still see people complaining about not having received a single thing or email for years now or still missing stuff / none core box stuff.

And to think Prodos has made literal millions in the mean time under the Archon brand, a name / company they lied about for months. Archon = 100% Prodos and effectively nothing more than an asset shift to tried to leave behind bad PR (with little success luckily).

As for outstanding items, I believe that would be the clear resin Predators. Some of those do seem to have shown up on their Facebook page, no word on how / if folks would ever get them. There were also 3D terrain pieces, but those were barely mentioned since the project finished. So we might as well consider those cancelled. Extremely hard to tell just how bad things are, especially with the Kickstarter page dead and buried and ton of folks getting banned in the early days of the group………..

I had thought that AVP was from the era in which Kickstarter projects just didn’t charge shipping in the first place. Shipping in the US has gone up a lot either way (I really respect the way that Kingdom Death now charges shipping right before they ship).

I wonder about fiscal trickery. I mean, it is definitely a strange move (one we’ve never seen repeated by anyone) and it is strange that they wouldn’t accept people just trying to help them out. But at the same time, I don’t really see how it benefits them more than people just giving them money.

I personally have to consider the switch to Archon to be a massive success. I agree that it was a completely unscrupulous move, but they fund new projects like a trusted company now. Sure, there are a bunch of AvP backers warning people away on each of them, but each delivered project is proof enough against them, so the funds just come pouring in.

Please understand that I’m not making fun of you, but I seriously want to hear your whole side of the story. I’ve gotten some pieces of information from a lot of places, but the source that has told me the most details was a pretty pro-Prodos backer (he got most of his stuff, and was very happy with Prodos).

I’ve been told that if you basically paid for shipping (or bought anything else from their store) they’d send out your KS order along with it.

Was that offered to you, and you declined?

How was that offer presented to you? Like, was it offered as a “get your stuff a few months early” thing, or did they tell you that they wouldn’t ship at all if you declined?

Is that offer still on the table, or is there zero chance of you getting your stuff now that the game is in its 2nd edition?

Are there items from the Kickstarter that were officially cancelled? Are any of Prodos’ newer releases also from Kickstarter promises? Have they produced new items that were promised to backers, or have they given up on making a lot of those?

Alternatively, are you just a backer whose order slipped through the cracks? I figure every KS has a couple of those, so I’m really asking if this is a customer service failure, or something on a grander scale.

Suprised by the negative comments about Bow in this post. You always get that with Prodos posts, due to the debacle that was the AvP kickstarter. However, I remember Bow repeatedly discussed the issues with the AvP kickstarter on the site. Warren discussed it several times and also contacted Jarek in a thread to try and clarify how things were being sorted out, so I think claims that Bow just whitewash stuff or sweep things under the carpet for money are disingenuous to be fair.

I remember they explained that they continue to work with Prodos due to their ongoing involvement in the industry/on kickstarters/model production for 3rd parties etc, and that these were being fulfilled/had improved. I’m pretty sure Prodos weren’t solely responsible for the numerous cock-ups we have all endured either, as Fox played their part. I eventually got my pledge after years of waiting minus the clear preds I ordered. Now they are finally available, I think I will get this expansion and get the free clear preds and get my credit back, presuming they are still offering that arrangement!

Ya don’t need to be stuck with the 1st ed rulebook, as pretty sure you can still get the 2nd rulebook off their website, as well as the wargame rules as well? Second version is a lot more playable than the first was.

Think I must be in the minority of wanting Prodos to succeed, as that way I get to have more fantastic AvP sculpts (which is why I backed in the first place), and so that they can finally complete the kickstarter for everyone.

Yeah- at some point, you figure it isn’t news anymore, right? I totally get why BoW doesn’t feel the need to bring it up every time Prodos (or Archon) do anything.

Did Prodos put the 2nd ed rulebook up on their website? To me, that seems like the standard for updating old customers, but I know some people feel burned if they don’t get a physical copy for free.

So, I’m guessing you were in on the KS and decided to buy “something extra” and get your stuff shipped to you? And, from what you said, it sounds like some of their newer releases were part of Kickstarter promises.

Is your take that they’re doing it right? I think clearly something went wrong, but you think they’re handling it well now? Do you see the other backers that complain as impeding the progress, or do you think they kind of have a point as well?

Definitely let us know if they’ll ship you the clear Predators if you buy something else. I really want to know if they’re still honoring that arrangement (and man, I wish I had an arrangement like that for one of the flailing Kickstarters I backed).

Yep I was a KS backer and received most of my pledge in summer 16. I did not buy anything extra, it just went out in the main wave when a lot of backers finally got something through. However it was missing some as yet unmade items. I think like the scenery, those items have been cancelled and won’t be produced now. So now I will try to get the credit back so I can buy the new expansion cos it looks great. And if any customer pre-orders, they get the clear preds, that’s not a KS backer exclusive thing or ote.

I didn’t see the offer of a further purchase triggering a delivery of any released items/units as a negative thing, I just didn’t want to do it as I felt I’d already paid shipping and would wait. I just saw it as an option that some backers could take up if wanted, or not. I think Prodos are doing what they can to complete the kickstarter, and draw a line under it. I’d imagine they want it resolved as much as backers do so as to try and end this debacle and move on.

I don’t like to see people being negative every time any new thing about AvP is posted: “they’re liars, thieves, they’ll never get a penny more of my money” kind of thing. I think it damages the interest in the game and pushes players away, thus weakening the game. However, I understand why some people do feel like that, and it’s their right to after all the issues backers have faced over literally years.

Personally, I think that until Prodos has completed every pledge from the list and all backers get the items they paid for, this sentiment will continue. Some backers will always hate Prodos for how they feel treated, and they will not be able to be won over. I just hope they can finally resolve it and everybody receives their pledge.

These guys really do have brass ball’s. They seem to think that we forget the way they treated the very people who got this game off the ground and gave them the fiances to complete the KS before AVP, against KS terms of service, and then blamed Fox for all the problems. Jared even said in posts now long deleted that he couldn’t wait to be rid of this licence. They can afford to give away free models with this game but can’t deliver stuff that their original backers paid for 5 years ago.

I was a backer and I did receive (after 4 years) the 2 first edition game boxes ordered with stretch goals missing.
They asked for me to buy something to get the stretch goals but I refused and after 20 or so emails they sent some stuff and I care so little at this point I never checked if it was all there.
I have never played the game and only ever opened one of them.
I have no interest in this game which is a shame because I had such passion in the beginning and that’s what they relied on to get the money they needed to drag themselves out of a hole of their own making.

Ok, so your story is that you did eventually receive (possibly all) your stuff, but the delays and terribly customer service left such a bad taste in your mouth that it ruined the whole experience for you.

It is a real shame that the experience prevents you from enjoying the game. I’ve had a bit of the opposite going on with Super Dungeon: Explore- I still love the game and minis despite how very poorly that Kickstarter has gone.

I generally think that delivery prompts forgiveness for lateness and poor communication (like with Kingdom Death: Monster and most of CMON’s early KS projects) but that definitely doesn’t seem to be the case for you.

I wonder if that’s because of how extremely bad the communication and lateness were, or if it has to do with the terrible customer service experience you had.

Its amazing what 3 years of constant lies will do to the reputation of a company.
Treating the very people who gave you the money to create the product like second class customers by releasing the product to retail months if not years before sending it to backers.
By demanding more money from said backers before sending their order (or part of) out even though they had paid the shipping over 3 years before.
Closing down AvP forums that gave the backers a chance to ask questions of company.
I wonder if the pdf for the AvP war game that Jared promised on this very community forum ever surfaced? I lost interest so never even bothered to check.

So yes this whole KS left a very bad taste in my mouth and I refuse to give a company that treated backers that wanted to help in such a way even a single penny more of my money and I would strongly advise anyone else not to be fooled by this badly run outfit.

I thought that AVP was one of those early Kickstarters that offered free shipping.

To be perfectly honest, I kind of think that the “buy one thing and we’ll ship your order” is a way to weed out the customer service “lost causes.” And I can see why that would really piss off anyone who was a CS lost cause, and maybe a few of the undecided folks.

In dealing with a customer service issue, always act like there’s a way they can win you back as a customer (even if they can’t).

The really strange thing is that Archon seems to have overcome the Prodos stigma. Now that they’ve delivered a few Kickstarters, their funding numbers look like they’re a trusted KS creator.